Factor

An excellent work from one of our most important scholars on Asia. Riddled with numbers and graphs, the book is still readable for those just encountering energy politics. The referencing is also excellent, and allows one to delve further into the topic.

His initial chapters on environment/pollution and population growth/demand, and scarcity are important by themselves. Understanding the differences between a scarcity of resources and political limitations or economic bottlenecks on those resources is essential to being able to really forecast the strategic environment. Consequently, the time Manning spends belittling Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome is well spent. The country analyses are also very useful, and give one a sense not only of the economics of energy, but of the two way impact of energy and political relationships between countries. With our noble leaders beginning to evoke various fears about Asia, this is very important in understanding the nature and degree of "emerging threats."

Manning might be too bold in divorcing extending military interests with growing energy demands, but it is worth reading the book to develop an opinion on the subject.

I also recommend checking out the Energy Information Administrations's website, which Manning used heavily. It was of great use to me in a recent project: www.eia.doe.gov

Also useful is the cover piece of the January 2001 'Atlantic Monthly.' The piece, "The New Old Economy: Oil, Computers, and the Reinvention of the Earth," in helping advance perspectives of the oil industry. See: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/01/rauch.htm

Robert Manning covers a lot of ground in this book, from the Caspian, to India, to Northeast Asia, and challenges a lot of established notions, but two of the points he makes really stand out:

First, he argues that energy interdependence is a potential positive force for Asian regional stability. While a number of analysts (from the serious scholar Kent Calder to the more shrill "Blue Team" types) have argued that China's entry onto the stage as a major oil importer will have serious negative consequences for regional stability, Manning argues that this is far from clear, and that it may actually have positive consequences. Other energy development issues looming in the future, such as the need for natural gas integration in Northeast Asia, can only be addressed by cooperation among regional governments and some degree of mutual interdependence.

Second, Manning points out in his preface how little contact and exchange there is between American analysts who focus on political and security issues, on the one hand, and those who focus on energy from an economic perspective. (As an example, he points out the differing views of the South China Sea between energy specialists and security policy analysts.) Energy issues involve tie-ins with a broad range of national security, economic, and environmental issues, and Manning argues that the policy community could benefit from more dialogue between these two separate sets of analysts. (I've long known this - since my own academic and professional background sort of straddles both groups.)

While the book does suffer a bit from poor editing in some spots, it is definitely a must-read for anyone interested in Asian security issues and/or the region's rapidly growing energy sector.

Without a doubt, energy will be among one of the most important factors determining diplomatic behavior and relations in Asia in the coming decades. The Asian Energy Factor tackles this emerging geopolitical concern through an intriguing analysis of Asia's growing demand for energy and its global political, economic, and strategic consequences. Unique from other authors addressing this under-examined issue, Robert Manning sets the stage by exposing the myth that the world is quickly running out of oil. Technology and new methods of both collection and use of energy have made the impending energy crisis espoused by the doomsayers less of a concern. Manning proceeds to focus on the regional powers (China, India, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia) and where their individual energy abilities and needs puts them on the collective strategic map. He examines the commercial and political dynamic between the countries demanding increasing amounts of energy (China, Japan, and India) and those with the reserves (the Middle East and Southeast Asia).

As The Asian Energy Factor aptly points out, energy security is the crux upon which the economic, social, energy, and military policies of Asian nations converge; it is among the most critical issues in the coming decade. Manning delves deep into these economic and strategic complexities and continues to challenge the prevailing wisdom about Asian power structure and energy competition.

While Ryan and the gang are elsewhere, Dean is grabbed by A Russian Slaver from Jak's farm to work at a sulfur mining colony. .....needless to say Ryan takes this a bit personally and embarks on a bloody mission to get back his son. Definately worth the wait it took to find a copy. PLEASE REPRINT MORE OF AXLER'S EARLIER BOOKS.

He gets taken by a pack of Russian slavers to work in a salt mine. I will always remember this work because I read it during a tornado(don't ask me why). Very enjoyable and defienatly of the top 5 deathlands books.

this is one of the greatest deathland books yet. i have read just about everyone and i still read this one over and over again. in fact it is the only audio book i own.

This book is billed as a pyschological thriller. It certainly is psychological and psychiatric. I was not gripped by the book to the extent that I could not put it down. By the time, the killer was revealed, the thrill was gone. The book is full of psychiatric lingo. The reader, who is not familiar with the language might be left in the dark. Then there is the issue of medication. Now how many people really know what risperal is? And you the issue of the labeling of people. For example, my diagnosis was described as "she was trapped between overwhelming emotions and a profound sense of emptiness." Basically, the book consists of Molly Katz trying to make sense of the baby sociopaths of the world. Are they born that way or was there some sort of event that brought them to that point? The book offers the reader a window into world of adolescent mental illness.

Fascinating look at the psychological issues facing our youth today, gives you much to think about. Discusses origin and responsibility - but is all tied to a fantastic tale. Author obviously knows his topic and has been on the inside of HMO battles, broken families, and hopeless feelings about treating kids whose societies and families have failed them...as well as treating those kids who might just be "born bad" - I felt I arrived at a new understanding about an important social issue at the same time as being riveted by a spectacular read! You'll love it if you are in the mental health field, if you are a parent, if you are a resident, or if you just love a good mystery! My highest praise!

I purchased this book after reading a review of it in our Sunday paper. Being a teacher, I was interested in how it described troubled children, and the "making" of troubled children, from a psychiatrist's point of view. The book was all I hoped for, and more. Besides gaining insightful, factual information, I was thoroughly absorbed in the plot as it unfolded. I, too, could not put this down when I neared the end. Now I am looking forward to reading his first book, "The Portrait."

This book is an absolute must for anyone who loves boats more than they have good sense. If you are a cruiser or a racer or a bar stool sealawyer who has any experience at sea, reading this book will lead you step by step from prejudice and intuition into solid insights into the behavior and performance of the different hull shapes in the real world of "at sea" in difficult situations. There is no substitute for "the experience" except the experience to recognise and avoid the experience and this book is every bit as important in picking a boat for your use or applying good seamanship to a boat that is on the edge of it's design envelope. The book contains the fundimental information that should be in any serious sailor's kit. It reads easily and the insights emphasise the seaworthiness vs speed delemma in yacht design.

It pickups where others have left off. If you want to understand what effects a boats motion and stability in a seaway, buy this book. It is not a light read, but is well worth the effort.

This is just one of the many Mr. Marchaj has written on boat design theory. Yacht must look good and be safe ( read seaworthy). In some instances it must also perform. Performance has no value if it can't handle the challange of the seas. "Seaworthiness, the forgotten factor" disects yacht safety down to most intricate detail. Simply, if you haven't read this book, you don't know it all. An absolute 5 star publication, written with great authority, by one of the most respected in the field. Check out Marchaj's other work as well, he never disappoints.

"Spacefaring: The Human Dimension" is Albert Harrison's look at the many factors which affect the experience of humans in space. Harrison considers not just the physical and intellectual demands of spacefaring, but also the psychological ones as well.

Often overlooked by avid space enthusiasts is the fact that space travel is conducted by human beings. Humans have very real limitations and frailties which affect our ability to not just function in space but to merely survive. Space is such a forbidding environment that difficulties which appear minor on Earth can have deadly consequences in space.

Harrison goes over a wide range of potential problems that spacefarers may have including poor training, bad group dynamics, wide mood swings, medical emergencies, lack of things we take for granted on Earth, and potential exposure to extremely lethal environments. Harrison most often focuses in "Spacefaring" on the mental and psychological aspects of space travel.

Harrison also considers the potential effects of spacefaring on 'regular' people as opposed to just highly trained astronauts. If mankind wants to colonize or economically exploit space, we have to take under consideration that most future spacefarers will be poorly trained by NASA's standards and may cause problems in space not currently envisioned.

I found Harrison's treatment of the subject matter to be less than thorough. "Spacefaring" had the feel of an outline or paper instead of an in depth study. I felt that Harrison could have gone into much greater detail for almost every chapter he wrote. Perhaps he will do so at a later time but, as far as "Spacefaring" goes, it leaves a little to be desired.

Like many of you, I'm a total advocate for human space exploration. Sure, robots are great, with their industructability and unquestioning loyalty, but there are times when you really need to get some human hands and eyes on location to provide some solid data and deal with the unexpected. But humans are soft, fragile, and can sometimes get a little grumpy.

Spacefaring: the Human Dimension by Albert Harrison helps fill a niche that I've found largely unfilled in most of the space exploration books I've read - how to keep humans alive, and stop them from killing each other during long space trips. And by focusing only on this aspect of space travel, Harrison gives the subject matter the time and respect it deserves. Each element is covered in tremendous detail, including the basics of food, air, water, heat, etc. but also the more psycological elements of coping with stress, group dynamics, training, and dealing with mistakes and disasters. Harrison throws in a plenty of anecdotes to give real world examples to the topics covered.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who finds this aspect of space exploration fascinating. I'd especially recommend it to folks like the Mars Society, as many of the issues have been largely ignored by NASA so far. And I'd force scriptwriters and directors to read this book before they make another Mission to Mars. Great book!

Al Harrison's book "SPACEFARING" has the qualities of an instant classic. It deals brilliantly with the central element in our ventures into space, the human being. It is a book about human factors in space. The work has the thoroughness and completeness of an academic treatise, but still reads easily. It is packed with little-known anecdotes and many cool historical and technical facts. The book's clear organization is particularly helpful, not just for guiding the layreader through a complex subject, but also for serving as a quick reference for space exploration professionals needing to read up on a specific topic. The book offers both a summary of lessons learnt and an analysis of our possible spacefaring future. For planners of a human mission to Mars, this is an ideal synthesis of where we stand on the subject of human factors.

Kern gives practical advice for spotting, dealing with, and preventing lapses in judgement and discipline that make a "rogue" aviator dangerous. This should be a must book for all pilots and aviation managers.

For a perfect complement, also read Keshner's COCKPIT CONFESSIONS OF AN AIRLINE PILOT, which is fun, brilliant, and belies its title.

Excellent book and a useful outline for self evaluation.

Stories used to illustrate the points are, for the most part, well written and also appear to be well researched.

I gave it only 4 stars because it seemed to suffer from a mild case of political correctness. Examples -

According to other sources the F-14 loss of control on departure accident which took 5 lives had a tie to the push to get Carla Hultgreen and her fellow F-14 pilot thru training. The doomed pilot of this airplane was rated below standards but above the female pilots in the same squadron and thus allowed to continue.

The discussion of the Ron Brown crash places a lot of blame on the squadron leadership for sending the aircraft on a mission in violation of regs. However, the major breakdown was the failure of Air Force leadership to tell the State and Commerce Dept that if you expect us to fly with this primitive nav equipement don't expect service to all these airports and the President and Congress who in their rush to cut defense spending put these aircraft on the line. Perhaps a discussion of the fact that the female officer in command may have felt some special pressure to complete the mission was warranted.

Another minor complaint is that more details would help in understanding the issues surounding some of the crashes . For example if the reported weather is included then stating the applicable minimums, rather than just saying the weather was below minimums would have been helpful.

Beyond these few issues this is an excellent read.

Mr. Kern has suceeded in bringing to the forefront what I consider one of the greatest challenges to aviation: the rogue, undisciplined pilot. Rogues will continue to be a source of danger not only to themselves but their crews, passengers and people on the ground and this book should be required reading for everyone with a certificate (and even those who aren't pilots). Kudos to Mr. Kern for an eye-opening look at this threat.

This wonderful book consideres the civic street from many perspecitives and describes it with poetic attention. The author has spent days on these great streets and brings careful measurement and observation to his carefully crafted text. If everyone planning streets and highways in America read this book and visited one of two of these great streets, it would enable a huge improvement.

This book studies the street not from the simple American perspecitve of high velocity traffic sewar, but from the realities of a place to hang out. eat lunch, shop, socialize, people watch, court, celebrate and be. The read how these places work in this book is to realize how much our desperate focus on the automobile costs us.

Buy this book and photocopy some of its illustrations for your next public hearing on town planning.

This book showcases some of the greatest streets in the world. Not only does it provide examples of great streets but it speaks about the criteria of being "great". The drawings are very nice as well, and this book would make a great addition to any architect, planner or travel enthusiasts' library.

This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in the study of urbanism.

good book for pilot and aviation maniac. tells about accident that happen in aviation life. all are true story. help one to avoid it or knowing what to do if. they are in the same situation. you can read it as a techical novel too.. complete with radio telephony transcript.. recomended..but of course not for a flying. magazine subscriber, you probably read it before.

this is a good book for pilot and aviation maniac. this book contain true stories about accidents in aviation life. help ones to realize how could some horrible thing happened in aviation and also can avoid it in their future life. you can also read it as a technical novel about aviation. sure, if you are a subscriber of flying magazine you don't have to buy this book..

If you are a pilot or a frequent flyer, or just interested in why aircraft accidents happen, this book is great reading. Basically a group of short stories, each one gives insight into the real human aspects of flying. I have never looked at flying the same way since finishing this book in 1994, and since then I have re-read it several times. It has prompted me to notice things I never would have otherwise and even question some pilots (upon landing) about them. It truly shows that professionalism in the cockpit is essential to aircraft and passenger safety. I bought and read this book when I was traveling a good bit on corporate aircraft. I felt compelled afterwards to loan it to our corporate flight department, and all of our company pilots ended up reading it. They all commented on what a great book it was, and that it really made you think about the decisions you make every day in the cockpit.

Professor Kline's book offers a very readable account on a rather confusing subject. The theory is explained clearly, plenty of examples are presented, and specially, there is a good deal of interpretation exercise. If you're also interested in principal components analysis, don't miss I. T. Jolliffe's book.

It has become increasingly evident that the social science fields need to evaluate theories and their underlying constructs empirically. If you are similar to myself as a graduate student, you needed to overcome your fears of using factor analysis in your research. This text is excellent for clarifying issues glossed-over in your basic statistics courses, without being too "techie" in its approach. This is a great startup book on factor analysis for fledgling researchers.

A very good book, I now actually understand the subject! It even goes on to explain about LISRELL

So far I think this book has alot of good info but not put together very well. If most people are like me, they want the info but also want an easy place to start at. The tables in the book are not enough to go by and the reading is overwhelming and confusing. If you love biology and are the type to ask your doctor a hundred questions, then this book is for you. If you are like me, and want something more simple to get started and more details later, then this is not that book.

This is the book to read if you want more information than one-page articles about heart health. I found that most articles and pamphlets gave general information, but did not tell me anything really convincing about actual risks and preventative measures (such as diet, exercise, etc.). This book tells WHY various things put one at risk and explains HOW the preventative measures will help. Plus, it gives practical advice rather than preachy Thou Shalt Nots which will leave you confused and eating nothing but rice cakes. If you want to be an informed patient, reading Dr. Mogodam's book gives you the information to understand your health and make your own decisions. He also discusses risk factors other than cholesterol.

Finally, the risk factors for heart attack (or other coronary event) are put together and quantified. The author enables the reader, after much background analysis, to assign a personal risk rating for age, diet, exercise, cholesterol, and family history. I was able to find out that given my circumstances, my risk of heart attack over the next 10 years is 20%. Sure it's a rough guess, but it's a start. More importantly, I can get the risk down to 10% or less; and know when I'm there. If you are middle aged, you need this book.